Warner Bros. has announced a 4th September release date for Avalanche Studios' Mad Max in the UK.

That date applies to the game's PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions.

There's no mention at all of the previously-announced PS3 and Xbox 360 editions, and a Game Informer report confirms that these have been "left by the wayside" to focus on optimising the PC and current-gen versions instead.

Publisher Konami had planned an official announcement tomorrow (there's even a countdown on the Metal Gear Solid website pointing to 2pm UK time on 4th March). But an eagle-eyed NeoGAF user found a couple of video interviews with series creator Hideo Kojima on website IGN's server, and they reveal the release date. (They've now been pulled.)

In the video Kojima stresses Metal Gear Solid 5 will be his final Metal Gear Solid. But then he always says that, doesn't he?

It includes three new maps for use in classic Survivor mode, and new playable character Ricardo, Sevastopol Station's Deputy Marshall.

In The Trigger, set before the events of Alien: Isolation, Ricardo tries to help Marshal Waits destroy the alien by using a package of explosives last seen with one of the marshals. You have to secure Prisoner Processing, track down the missing marshal in Synthetic Storage then blast the alien into space. At least, that's the plan.

The Winter Patch is designed to improve netcode and soldier collision, as well as tweak the Squad Obliteration game mode so it becomes the lead competitive mode in DICE's first-person shooter. The new Squad Obliteration scales down the fast-paced objective-based gameplay of the original to a 5v5 competitive environment.

It's fair to say that whenever there's a Dynasty Warriors, there'll be an Empires to go with it. This latest instalment follows the usual path; take the combat from the latest Dynasty Warriors and weave strategy all around it. The hack-and-slash carnage is embedded, compartmentalised and re-focused within a superstructure of turn-based expansion and consolidation. For many, it'll be the same old story, but it offers a multitude of joys for diehard fans, especially if they haven't played DW7 Empires. For anyone lured in by DW8, Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires sets a much deeper and detailed challenge.

Barely building on the previous Empires title, DW8's take includes the traditional Koei dash of some new stuff, including marriage and children. You can play it as a loyal servant to one of Dynasty Warriors' famous generals, sticking with them or stabbing them in the back, or work as a free agent for hire and set up shop on your own. Ultimately you're seeking the unification of China, and the most fun to be had is in taking it all by force.

A real highlight is the opportunity to create your own warrior and go fighting in marvellous costumes. I set up a character based on my cat, gave it my favourite Musou warrior Zhou Tai's move-set and quickly formed an alliance with the common first-bloods of the Dynasty Warriors universe - the Yellow Turbans. I happily followed the orders of crazed wizard Zhang Jiao and we expanded our territories with decent pace, but old Zhang Jiao has little love for his people, conferring the rank of DESPOT upon my feline swordswoman. This would not do at all. Nobody makes Monktonia a despot.

Digital Foundry is currently en route to GDC 2015, so there won't be a new article published today. However, as we make the long journey across to San Francisco, we're reminded of the first - and possibly the best - GDC talk we saw. That would be then-Naughty Dog Richard Lemarchand's hour-long journey into the making of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, a title that remains one of the greatest games released in the last-gen era. A remarkably insightful talk that gave us fantastic background into the way Naughty Dog worked, we couldn't help but think that the presentation would translate into a great feature - and to this day this remains one of our favourite pieces. Originally published on the March 20th 2010, this is an article we're happy to share with you again.

Speaking at GDC 2010, Naughty Dog lead game designer Richard Lemarchand gave a candid presentation on the development of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - a post-mortem of the game-making process that covered, in his own words, "what went right and what blew up in our faces like a red explosive barrel!"

Just one face in a crowd of hundreds, it's a unique opportunity to get a glimpse at the game-making philosophies and techniques of one of the world's leading developers. Here we recap the session in detail and expand upon it with Naughty Dog's assistance and our own unique visual assets. Enjoy!

The mod in question, Fluffy Manager 5000, still has a few kinks to work out regarding this new feature. For one, it's only effective with gamepads. "Keyboard/mouse controls always affect both players, so it's not usable," Sectus noted in his YouTube notes. Furthermore, the local co-op option still isn't available in Raid mode, though Sectus said he's working on implementing that.

Online servers for Ridge Racer Unbounded have been shut down in Europe, publisher Bandai Namco has announced.

As of today, the game's multiplayer mode is no longer be available on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

"The publisher and developer wanted to take this opportunity to thank, once again, all the players for their support of Ridge Racer Unbounded throughout the years," a statement posted to Namco's official site explained.

The PlayStation 4 release of Dark Souls 2 is poised to be the best way to revisit Drangleic on console - a true 1080p title adorned with countless visual upgrades over last-gen. However, the Scholar of the First Sin remaster is also due for PC; a DirectX 11 reworking that adds many of the enhancements seen on PS4. With access to more powerful hardware, this could make it the definitive release, but as PC owners already enjoy the current game at 1080p60 and beyond, is the upgrade really necessary?

Having dissected the Forest of Fallen Giants area already, we now focus on larger, wider locales like Heide's Towering Flame and No-Man's Wharf. We boot up the original PC version (with all settings set to high, and no mods) to see how these levels stack up against Scholar of the First Sin on PS4. Both are played side-by-side to show From Software's efforts to remix the formula - a state of affairs that shows some promise for the forthcoming upgraded PC release.

The enemy placements in each area are the most noticeable change to the game. As a well-versed example, Heide's Tower of Flame consists of the same giant knights that Dark Souls 2 fans will remember, each in the same position. But dispersed between them are new, dormant knights who rouse based on your progress through the game overall - or if attacked. Winding your way up to the blue cathedral, a giant wyvern also now sprawls in front of the raised drawbridge - a real curveball for those expecting just another knight.

This is due to "an unexpected issue" with the PC release. "We don't take this decision lightly, but rest assured that our team is working with Activision to get this content to the PC community as quickly as possible," the publisher said.

But there's a plus side to all this. "In the meantime, we're turning on ‪DoubleXP‬ for all PC players to enjoy," Activision added. Hope that will tide PC players over.

This add-on to Ubisoft's open-world shooter sees you back in the green track jacket of Ajay Ghale as he crashes in a snowy plain occupied by a sinister group of cultists and, as the name implies, yetis.

That's all very well, but for me the most interesting part of this news is that this will mark the very first time Telltale isn't working on a licensed franchise. So what does that mean for its next game?

Gran Turismo 6 has finally received its B-Spec mode - an option that allows you to nominate an AI driver to take your place in career events - well over a year after the game first released.

B-Spec mode comes as part of version 1.16 which went live today, weighing in at 536MB. The option to have an AI partner has been a popular part of the series since Gran Turismo 4, with players using the feature to assist with the completion of some of the more gruelling endurance events.

Update 1.16 also reintroduces Mid-Field Raceway, a fictional track that debuted in Gran Turismo 2. The track's been updated for the PS3, with variable time and weather options available. Also new is the GT Vision Mini Clubman, a concept car designed bespoke for developer Polyphony's game.

The first episode of Resident Evil Revelations 2 is out now on all platforms, and you'll be able to pick up the remaining three episodes over the next few weeks. It's certainly a bold new approach for the series, and whether the game suffers from being separated into two-hour doses is something we won't be able to judge until we have our hands on March's concluding episode.

Between now and then though, we're putting together a walkthrough to help you navigate the puzzles and perplexities of each episode on a week by week basis. We'll make sure this guide is fully updated to match the release dates of each chapter, so don't forget to check back as the staggered release plays out.

]]>http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-02-26-slender-the-arrival-ps4-xbox-one-release-date-revealed
http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=1739273Thu, 26 Feb 2015 11:03:00 +0000Looks like Destiny is getting a new social space in the Reef

Destiny will gain a new social area in its upcoming House of Wolves expansion, according to a fresh set of leaked screenshots.

The new hub will be set within the mysterious Reef location and will presumably act as another space for players to gather, in addition to the game's main Tower.

]]>http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-02-26-looks-like-destiny-is-getting-a-new-social-space-in-the-reef
http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=1739216Thu, 26 Feb 2015 09:12:00 +0000Video: Pointing, poking and perishing - Resident Evil Revelations 2 gameplay highlightsThe first episode of Resident Evil: Revelations 2 is out right now, much to the delight of Barry Burton fans worldwide. Ian gave it a go during one of our live streams and, well, things got a bit weird. Get ready for a lot of shooting, a fair amount of dying horribly, and a surprising amount of role-playing as a little girl. Oh, and some Cliff Richard.

Despite its deliciously swift tempo, straightforward controls, lavish high play complexities and matches that can flip on a single misread lunge, Dead or Alive has always struggled to match the fame and recognition enjoyed by its rivals on merit alone. It is a middleweight in a world of heavyweights and therefore must seek attention through other means. A launch in peaceful February for this, the final iteration of Dead or Alive 5, is just one of the ways publisher Tecmo hopes to generate interest in the game. Then there's the extravagant number of characters, hundreds upon hundreds of costumes, play-modes and, of course, those headline-grasping breasts.

Everybody knows the Assassin's Creed series' haystack leaps are ridiculous. But just how ridiculous are they? The students at University of Leicester's physics department, obviously with some time on their hands, decided to find out.

Throughout the games, players are able to jump from enormous height into improbably small patches of straw found on the ground or in the backs of carts.

Characters will always survive the fall unharmed, whatever the height - an unlikely outcome in real life.

]]>http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-02-25-university-science-paper-investigates-assassins-creed-haystack-leaps
http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=1738976Wed, 25 Feb 2015 11:34:00 +0000Hunger Games film studio Lionsgate announces Telltale Games partnershipUPDATE 25/2/15 9.10am: Former EA boss John Riccitiello has also joined the board of directors at Telltale Games.

Riccitiello left EA in 2013 to become CEO of game engine developer Unity Technologies, among other things. His appointment to the Telltale board comes on the same day as film studio Lionsgate's investment, detailed below.

"Telltale has created something entirely new," Riccitiello said in a statement. "Their games combine linear storytelling and gameplay in an entirely new way that is fresh, unique, and compelling.

Rockstar has delayed the PC release date of Grand Theft Auto 5 again - this time, until 14th April.

It is the third launch date that Rockstar has announced for the game's PC version. It had previously been due to arrive on 27th January, and then on 24th March.

The developer has also announced a release date for GTA5's highly-anticipated Online Heists mode, which will launch as DLC for the game's console version on 10th March and be available from launch on PC.

Poor old Q*bert. He may have been a minor celebrity in 1982, but his fame didn't have the staying power of Pac-Man and Space Invaders. In 2015, the hose-nosed squawking orange lump is more of a nostalgic footnote than an actual brand.

Through a series of unlikely corporate takeovers in the early 1980s, when Columbia briefly owned arcade company Gottlieb, the Q*bert character is actually now owned not by a games publisher, but by movie company Sony Pictures. Hence his cameo in Disney's Wreck-It Ralph, and his upcoming appearance in Sony's own arcade-themed CG movie Pixels this Christmas.

If you're still lamenting the fact that the Shenmue series never made it to next-gen platforms, here's the next best thing: Yakuza Zero, an 80s gangster epic set in a slightly fictionalised version of Tokyo's red light district, Kabukichō.

Set in December 1988, we get to see series stalwart Kazuma Kiryu and the world's most stylish mobster Majima Goro as young upstarts making their way in the honour-bound world of organised crime.

A demo for Yakuza Zero recently arrived in Japan and YouTuber Japanese Entertainment has a full hour of PS4 gameplay in glorious 1080p/60fps.

Sex. Sexy sex. The place of it in games is something of a hot button issue in the industry right now, but more often than not when we do decide to discuss digital coupling, we keep returning to the very worst examples of it. Personally I'd love to see a bit more of the old rough n' tumble in games as a whole, but is it too much to ask that, if we're going to Do It, we at least do it right?

"All the viewers that are watching, this is a glitch to get your characters above 20, I guess," 11-year-old Henry Kramer told his viewers on Twitch.

Destiny was Henry's favourite game. He played online with his school friends in the evenings and had poured countless hours into Bungie's online space shooter since he had received a PlayStation 4 for Christmas.

Henry had not one, but three Destiny characters - one for each of the game's character classes. His Warlock was level 31 - just a few in-game materials away from the current level cap. He also had a level 26 Titan and was currently working on levelling his 23 rank Hunter.

Ted Nugent's Stranglehold is a nine-minute beast of a song, a deeply sinister trip to the dark side with a guy who just doesn't know when to quit. The very first line - "Here I come again now, baby / Like a dog in heat" - sets a certain cards-on-table tone. But in addition to its signature juggernaut riff, shred in tooth and claw, Stranglehold also features a long, sparse mid-section powered by a rubber-band bassline. It's during this spooky longueur that the Nuge - or you, if you're playing Guitar Hero World Tour - wrings out odd guitar wails and bursts of distorted squall. It's one of those solos that goes on so long that you almost forget it's part of an actual song, until Ted pops up again, singing hoarsely: "Some people think they gonna die someday / I got news, ya never gotta go." It's an unsettling gospel of everlasting life, preached by a dude who, when he's not generating intensities in ten cities, enjoys shooting flaming arrows. It's also totally brilliant.

Critics like to talk about rock immortality, usually attaching it to the geniuses who leave us too soon: your Hendrixes, your Cobains, your Buckleys. For a while, it looked like the Guitar Hero franchise was going to achieve something comparable - maybe not inventing a brand new genre of rhythm action game, but certainly perfecting and dominating it. The first installment came out at the tail end of 2005 and within 12 months Guitar Hero was a global phenomenon. Five years later, it seemed to simply run out of puff, defeated by the shifting player tastes that also kneecapped its sturdy rival Rock Band. Guitar Hero is dead, essentially, but deserves to be on the cover of Mojo magazine, if only for services to classic rock, introducing a whole new generation to Tom Petty, the Edgar Winter Group and Creedence Clearwater Revival.

But rather than canonising Guitar Hero, anecdotally it feels like former players have a mild sense of embarrassment about all those hours spent doing rock karoake, as if it represented something faddish and ephemeral like collecting Pogs or nursemaiding Tamagotchi. It probably didn't help that the game arrived so perfectly formed, so sui generis, that (subsequent addition of drums and vocals aside) there really wasn't anywhere for it to go. But did we all just stop enjoying it? Was there a moment where, collectively, we looked at the make-believe guitars leaning against our sleek home entertainment centres and thought, in the immortal words of Mark Knopfler, "that ain't working"?

Hello! Chris Donlan here. David Goldfarb, our regular columnist, is away this week, so I've asked Rob Fearon to write something instead and he has very kindly agreed. Rob designs wonderful arcade games such as DRM (which does not include DRM) and he is also a brilliant writer. I know: what a massive jerk. I really hope you enjoy what he's come up with today. Also, look at THIS.

I grew up in an all too typical 1980's northern town. Factories closed, unemployment rose. First friends of the family left jobless, then my parents. The stinking grey skies a reminder that the wheels of industry still turned close, the lack of food in the cupboard and the tears and upset a constant reminder of how out of reach most work in the area remained.

I got a Spectrum when I was younger, before the work and the money ran dry. I'd rush home from school to play Jetpac, Jet Set Willy, Jumping Jack and other games beginning with J. I loved playing games but I never felt like I could actually write the things. Sure, I'd tinker with The Quill to make hilarious (not actually hilarious) adventure games (for the kids that's what we'd now call "interactive fiction" or what a subset of idiots would call "not a game"), then there was HURG, GAC and SEUCK and other tools with awful acronyms designed to help make making games easier. In the main they were too limited or too difficult for me to use. Besides, I really liked playing games and making them seriously cuts into the time you can spend doing that, yeah?

Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile developer tri-Ace has been acquired by Japanese mobile company Nepro Japan.

Siliconera translated the announcement where it noted that the publisher hopes to develop more smartphone titles with the critically acclaimed console developer in its stable (along with another gaming subsidiary, Mobile & Game Studio).

While best known for the Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile series, tri-Ace also collaborated with Square Enix on Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13 and Final Fantasy 13-2 where it assisted in game design, artwork, programming and other areas. It also developed the 2010 RPG Resonance of Fate, which our Simon Parkin recommended.

Whatever your stance on the humble moustache, mutton chops, beard or goatee, facial hair can be found growing with reckless abandon on a number of gaming's most memorable protagonists (and a few forgettable ones to boot). Once you delve a bit deeper, however, a pattern starts to emerge from among the bristles; facial hair is, basically, game developer shorthand for emotional development.

Don't believe me? Watch the video below and you'll soon see that if a game character wants to do a bit of grieving, they best chuck away their shaving kit first.

Square Enix has released 33 new screenshots of the Manderville Gold Saucer theme park, due to be added to massively multiplayer online role-playing game Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn with next week's patch 2.51.

The screenshots show off the Gold Saucer itself, Chocobo racing and raising and the Triple Triad card game. The entire thing rekindle memories of seminal JRPG Final Fantasy 7, which had a Gold Saucer of its own.

As mentioned, the Gold Saucer has that great Final Fantasy staple Chocobo racing, the card game Triple Triad, the Cactpot mini-game, and loads of mini-attractions. While in the Gold Saucer, Gold Saucer Active Time Events, or GATEs, may trigger.

DICE has called on Battlefield 4 players to help it build a new map for the game.

This map will be tested and tweaked in the Community Test Environment (CTE) by Battlefield 4 Premium members, creative director Thomas Andersson wrote in a post on Battlelog.

It will then be released as a free download to all players on all platforms, "as a thank you to the Battlefield community for sticking to your Battlefield 4 guns and giving excellent feedback to improve the game", Andersson said. Expect it at some point in 2015. Any ideas?

Capcom has released a new trailer for action role-playing game Dragon's Dogma Online, due out in Japan for PC, PlayStation 4 and PS3.

The video, below, features Japanese voiceover, but we get a good look at the visuals with snippets of gameplay thrown in.

Dragon's Dogma Online is free-to-play, so you can expect microtransactions, and as an online-focused title there's a lobby that supports 100 players. Players can form parties of up to four players or pawns and go on quests. Raids support up to eight players at once.

]]>http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-02-20-destiny-patch-will-finally-add-matchmaking-to-weekly-heroic-strikes
http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=1738029Fri, 20 Feb 2015 08:44:00 +0000New Rock Band is in development for PS4 and Xbox One - report

A new Rock Band game is in development for PS4 and Xbox One, according to a report from Bloomberg.

While credited to "a person familiar with the plan," the Bloomberg report corroborates recent speculation that Harmonix is planning to relaunch the series as it just started adding new DLC to Rock Band 3 after a 21 month Hiatus.

January saw new songs from Arctic Monkeys, Avenged Sevenfold and Foo Fighters, while just this Tuesday Harmonix added Tenacious D's Rize Of The Fenix and Weezer's Back to the Shack to the playlist.

EA will reward those who played any of the last few Battlefield games and buy upcoming cops and robbers spin-off Battlefield Hardline.

The Veteran's Pack is exclusive to owners of Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Battlefield 3 or Battlefield 4 who also buy Battlefield Hardline.

It includes one in-game Veteran's Patch, one 200 per cent Objective Boost (active for 30 minutes once activated), and one 200 per cent Teamplay Boost (active for 30 minutes once activated). Not a game-changing pack, then, but a nice touch.

The Guilty Gear series has never quite taken off like Capcom's top fighters. Its mish-mash of mechanics is often seen as a deterrent to new fans, and so too is the rougher, heavy metal twist to its universe - filled as it is by vampires, anchor-wielding pirates, and doctors with giant scalpels. But after spending most of the last generation on mute, there's a tremor of a real comeback in Guilty Gear Xrd's PS4 release.

It looks gorgeous, which is a start. The sprite artistry of Arc System Works has served the series well till now, but the move to 3D characters and stages is impeccably handled, mimicking the hand-drawn style of earlier games. In battle, what unfolds is an explosion of vivid cel-shaded colour - of flame trails, lightning arcs and whiplashes of gold hair. It works amazingly well, and it's impossible to see exactly where its DNA overlaps with other Unreal Engine 3 titles.